If you haven’t heard of it, Forecast Advisor rates the accuracy of many weather services forecasts over the past month and year. In my case, Weather Underground (WU) is almost always the best. In my search for weather apps, I’ve limited it to those that use WU.

Official WU Apps

Weather Underground – Was my default weather app for years until I discovered Hello Weather (see next section).

WU Storm – I use Storm to look up historical weather data. Provides some additional layers on the radar.1

Apps With WU as a Data Source

Hello Weather – Hello Weather has become my favorite weather app as the interface is data dense but still very clean. If you subscribe to the Fan Club, you get the option to use WU for the forecast and Dark Sky for rain. This is a very unique (and useful) combination.2

The only other two apps that I’ve found that use WU data are Clear Day and Weather Mate Pro, but I haven’t tried either as their interfaces look awful from the screenshots. If you know of any others, I’d love to hear about them.

Update

CARROT Weather has released a huge update that includes an option to use WU + Dark Sky (you must have the Ultrapremium subscription to access this option). The widget isn’t quite as good as the one from Hello Weather, but I do really like the customization options for Watch complications and the widget.

As part of consuming less news, I made it a goal to read more books. One of the first topics I tackled was climate change. Let’s take a pause here. Climate change is not an opinion or hoax, it is supported by science from every angle over a long period of time1. Now that we have that out there, I’d like to recommend three of the books I read.

Planetary Boundaries

Big World, Small Planet by Johan Rockström2 discusses how in two generations, we’ve overwhelmed the earth and ”went from a small world on a big planet to a big world on a small planet”. There are planetary boundaries (greenhouse gases, ocean acidification, etc.) that we must stay within or we risk going to a point of no return. While we have an idea what will happen if we exceed the boundaries, we can be sure there will be some catastrophic surprises. The author goes on to discuss how we can still succeed economically and as a society while remaining within the boundaries. In order to do this, we need to change our mindset and spark innovations to solve the issues at hand. If you want to be informed about the science and be inspired by some great photography, I highly recommend this book3.

Human Capability to Change

Earth in Human Hands by David Grinspoon is a much longer read. Being more of an academic book, it weighs in at over 500 pages with numerous footnotes and references. Regardless, I found it an intriguing read. The author is an astrobiologist and discusses how Earth’s climate got to where it is, as well as research on other planets’ climates. He discusses how we can learn from this research to help imagine what might happen to Earth if we don’t make changes. Overall, this book takes a much more optimistic tone (on a long term time scale) and is a proponent of engineering the planet to make sure we keep the climate under control.

Climate Denial

The Madhouse Effect by Michael E. Mann is a quick, but excellent read. Combined with satirical cartoons, the author discusses climate denial and how we got into the current political mess surrounding climate change4. The author is skeptical of geoengineering5 and doesn’t see how we feasibly could move to another planet in the next several generations6. His solution is that we must work toward clean energy so we can keep fossil fuels in the ground.

After getting pulled into the news during this year’s election cycle, I decided to take a step back and reevaluate my consumption. Reading Nicholas Bate’s “22 Reasons your 2017 is going to be Awesome“, number 4 stood out:

Every single problem commentators list for 2017 from Brexit to Trump to Asteroid Collision, you will ask: Can I fix this? If yes, do so. If no, execute your plan B. But stay resourceful, walk tall and love planet Earth

I’ve started posing this question to myself, and it has changed how I consume media. I no longer mindlessly save news stories to Instapaper to read or browse multiple papers. I am even thinking of cutting out the national evening news for some extra reading time.

What am I reading now?

For the past few weeks I’ve been relying on the NYTimes1 and The Economist Espresso2 apps. I also still subscribe to the Next Draft newsletter, which is where I find a lot of my long-form current event reading.

Less stress, More knowledge

So far, I’ve been learning a lot and feeling less stress about the news (but not under informed). If you feel like you’ve been pulled into the news cycle, I suggest you give some thought to your consumption as well.

Update:Seth Godin wrote an excellent article about how we need to move our media consumption from “The candy diet” (or clickbait, bad TV shows, etc.) to thoughtful consumption. Just changing our consumption habits will force the media to make changes.

I mainly read the Morning Briefing and scan the article summaries in the Top Stories section of the app. ↩

The Economist is a great source for international news and U.S. news from a foreign prospective. Espresso provides it in a quick to read, daily format (not to mention it’s much cheaper than subscribing to the magazine). ↩

Don’t forget to check your public library to see if they loan Kindle books for free. ↩

After drooling over Tom Bihn travel gear for far too long, I decided it was time to get real and find a one-bag system that would work for me and be within my budget. After much research, I decided to give the Osprey Farpoint 40 a try. With a retail price of $1601, the Farpoint 40 costs less than half of the Tom Bihn setup I was considering.

How I travel

Most of my travel is for business trips between 2-4 nights. Some large items I usually have to pack include a 15″ Lenovo laptop (work issued) and a pair of sneakers (either for the gym, or an alternative to my steel toes). When traveling for pleasure, I can leave the laptop at home.

Previous to purchasing the Farpoint 40, I was using an eBags backpack that I got for less than $50 and my Timbuk 2 Alchemist Messenger. The biggest reason I was in the market for something new was the comfort and size of the eBags backpack. The straps were not comfortable when the pack was loaded and it wouldn’t fit under an airplane seat.

How I picked the Farpoint 40

I knew I wanted to stay with a backpack. After the freedom of not having a roller bag, you don’t want to go back. I also wanted something that would hold my laptop (so I could one-bag it) and that would fit under an airplane seat (including the smaller isle and window areas).

My research first (and most frequently) pointed me to the Tom Bihn and GORUCK. While these all would be excellent choices, I decided that the Tom Bihn travel bags weren’t designed to be a backpack first (and their backpacks not big enough) and that the GORUCK aesthetic didn’t work for me2. When Ben Brooks suggested that I check out the Farpoint 40, I found many other recommendations for Osprey travel gear as well.

Osprey has been around since 1974 and has a lifetime warranty on all their products (like Tom Bihn & GORUCK). Since their main focus is backpacking, I knew their straps and support would be excellent. Knowing this, I was sold.

Design

One important note to start, the Farpoint 40 comes in two sizes (S/M and M/L). The difference is mainly the positioning of suspension system to accommodate different torso lengths. As a big guy, I assumed I would be the larger size, but the fit guide put me in either (I ended up ordering the M/L)3.

Osprey Farpoint 40

Overall, the bag build is great. On the black pack I ordered, the inside lining is bright green, making it easy to see inside. The main compartment is a single large space with two compression straps. This makes it easy to pack in whatever method you prefer. The whole inside of the lid has a nice mesh zipper panel.

Main Compartment

On the outside of the lid there are two compartments and two mesh pockets. The top pocket is great for your liquids bag if you are flying or anything else small that you might need quick access to. The large pocket has a padded laptop sleeve with a Velcro closure and a smaller padded zipper pocket (fits a Kindle or iPad). There is also plenty of room outside the tech pockets.

Front Pocket

The front of the bag has two compression straps which help stabilize the bag, compress the front pocket, and keep the lid/pocket from opening too much. They also secure a flap of fabric around the zippers, making it harder for someone to gain access to your bag.

The most defining feature of the bag is the harness and hipbelt system. Everything is very well ventilated and padded and the addition of a sternum strap ties everything together. The LightWire frame (internal) helps distribute the weight to the hipbelt, which I found key to the comfort of the bag.

Harness System

There is a stowaway backpanel to cover the harness system, which is great when you carry the bag horizontally (with the included shoulder strap) or need to slide it under an airplane seat.

Stowable Backpanel

Function

The Farpoint 40 is my favorite travel bag to date. It is large enough to travel with one bag while still being comfortable to carry and small enough to fit under an airplane seat. For my 3 night business trip there was room to spare. As long as the front pocket isn’t packed too much (to make the bag round instead of square), I don’t see ever having issues fitting it under my seat.

The major complaint seen when researching this bag is the front laptop compartment (some feel that it unbalances the load). I did not find this to be an issue, and actually thought it made it easier to quickly remove and re-stow my laptop when going though airport security.

The only issue I had was using the bag as my day bag/briefcase while at a work conference. While it is doable, the bag does look quite unwieldy when it is not very full. I found using it in the shoulder bag configuration with the straps stowed to work the best. The outer compression straps do a decent job keeping the laptop from flopping around. This could be solved with a small, packable briefcase like the Tom Bihn Daylight Briefcase.

The Farpoint 40 exceeded all expectations and has become my bag for all my travels. The bag is comfortable, fits under an airplane seat, and is sturdy. I foresee possibly adding a packable briefcase, but I plan to continue using this bag to travel with just one bag. The freedom of never having checked luggage or a second bag to deal with is a great way to travel. For the price, I’m willing to say that the Farpoint 40 can’t be beat. While I haven’t tried any of the popular, more expensive options, I imagine that it would also fare well against them.

I found a great deal on Amazon for $120, and it seems their price fluctuates between $120-150. ↩

As a kid, my summer vacation always included a two week camping trip. During my elementary school years, it was always with my grandparents who were lifetime campers (they’ve camped in every state but Hawaii). It was during these early years that I developed my connection with nature.

It’s hard to explain, but there is a sense of peace and wonder that can be felt from spending time with nature and away from everything else. John Muir said it best in his journal:

There is a love of wild nature in everybody an ancient mother-love ever showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties.

After finding this connection, I always looked forward to spending time in nature. Our vacations took me many beautiful places, some of my favorites being Grand Teton, Glacier, and The Great Smokey Mountains National Parks.

Now that I am on my own, my wife and I make sure we do everything we can to protect our planet. We only have one, and need to make sure it survives. We make sure to get out and enjoy nature to nurture our connection and remind us what were protecting. Every outing still brings a sense of calm and inward reflection for me. Again, as explained by John Muir:

But in every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.

On this Earth Day, take some time to think about how your life has been changed by nature. If you don’t feel that connection, do yourself a favor and spend some time building one this summer. We need to work together to take care of this spaceship we call Earth.

I’ve been trying to consume less in order to learn and create more. I’ve made good progress shifting from consumption to education, and here’s how I’ve done it so far.

Pruning Twitter

The first step I took was to prune back who I follow on Twitter. I was following way too many accounts to keep up with, some people I didn’t even remember why I was following them. I took the time to go through my whole list and unfollowed a large majority of accounts. To take it even further, as I noticed high volume accounts in my stream, I unfollowed them. If the tweets were something I might still be interested in, I added them to my lists.

Do away with guilt reading

I decided to get rid of Instapaper. I found myself saving countless articles that I then felt like I had to read. If something was really that important, wouldn’t I think to seek it out again when I had time? I ended up coming to a happy medium where I now save anything I might want to come back to on Pinboard1. I made sure to not use any “read later” tags as well to avoid just moving my “guilt reading”. If what I’ve saved is actually important or useful, I will remember and come back to it.

Remove extraneous sources of news

Next up was my news/article sources. I tackled this by unsubscribing from newsletters, pruning my RSS feeds2 & podcasts3, and removing most news apps from my phone4. It’s amazing the echo chamber we tech nerds get stuck in, and it was actually refreshing to get away from some of that. After a while, I found myself unsubscribed from all email newsletters (except for one5) and aggressively deleting podcasts/podcast episodes that were not interesting. I also trimmed my RSS feeds down to 28, many of them being low volume feeds.

More thoughtful consumption

Now that I’ve freed myself from feeling like I have to consume media, I can make thoughtful choices about what I read. I’ve been reading more books and spending more time developing skills.

I’ve also found it helpful setting myself certain times of day when I can look at certain things like Twitter, RSS, news, etc. If it’s not within one of those windows and I find myself going for my phone, I open up a book (or even a Wikipedia article6) or do some writing.

Thoughtful consumption has been working well for me, and I hope to continue and make refinements along the way.

I use Pinswift on iOS (adds a Share Sheet button and can automatically grab a nice link description for you). ↩